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CHICAGO—On a day when the chairman of NBC Sports was quoted as saying that those players should dispense with their pesky playoff beards, which render them harder to market to the public by hiding their faces, like hobos or criminals or actors between roles, to paraphrase only a little . . .

And one day after Jonathan Drouin was approved to give an interview in French to TVA at the beginning of the Game 3 warmup, in which the 2013 No. 3 pick said he was going to play that night for the Tampa Bay Lightning, and after which Drouin was scratched for a seventh defenceman, which even in the context of the season-long tug-of-war between player and team was an eyebrow-raising development . . .

And one day after Alan Eagleson, the disgraced former head of the players’ union, was allowed to appear at the morning skate as if he had not committed crimes against players serious enough that you’d think a credible league would have banned him from its arenas for life, even if he did share their stance on taking money from the players as a principle . . .

Well, the Stanley Cup final was lucky there were other things for people to talk about than parody, mystery and infamy. Three games into the final between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Lightning, and on Tuesday Tampa’s 2-1 series lead meant an appreciation of both the way the games have been played, and what this young team has accomplished.

There was a spotlight on defenceman Victor Hedman, who delivered spectacular assists on two of Tampa’s three Game 3 goals and was justly lauded — he’s been a primal force in these playoffs, full of confidence, a player with Chris Pronger’s size and a smaller man’s skills. Hedman’s great.

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“I don’t know if he’s as smooth as Scott Niedermayer was, but he can move like him,” said Lightning veteran Brenden Morrow. “He’s about four or five inches taller. He’s a monster.”

There was more on Ben Bishop’s ability to play through his mystery injury, which has rendered him into more of a listing stone giant than usual, and Tampa’s ability as a young team to go 8-3 in the formidable rinks of Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, the Bell Centre in Montreal, and the United Center in Chicago.

“It could be a combination of a lot of things,” said Morrow. “But maybe when we get on the road there maybe isn’t as much focus — because we can’t have it — on matchups, we just go out and play. We’re a team that when we have no hesitation to our game, we’re very successful. So that could be part of it. You turn off the thinker a little bit.”

And there were, of course, the struggles of the Blackhawks, who can’t be sure that they’ll have defenceman Johnny Oduya for Game 4, and the article of faith that this is a team that can elevate its game when the games matter more. They are, after all, 30-30 in Games 1-3 under head coach Joel Quenneville, and 40-14 in Games 4-7.

“I think it’s just about raising our game and not letting them do what they want to do,” said Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, who along with Patrick Kane has not put any sort of imprint on the first three games of the final. “We’ve put ourselves in a good spot in third periods the last couple of games, but we’re kind of (letting) a minute or two get away from what’s making us a good team. We let them play their game a little bit too easily. It ends up hurting us.”

So, now you’re mostly caught up. There are a lot of interlocking storylines to this promising Stanley Cup final, plus the sideshows. It’s basically a buffet, and you can choose what you like.

But remember: the margin between appreciating the heavyweight duo of Marian Hossa and Brandon Saad for a day instead of Hedman, or appreciating the relentlessness of the Blackhawks over the resilience of the Lightning, or wondering whether Bishop should be in there with whatever injury is causing him to occasionally topple over when he tries to push to his left, is as thin as hockey’s gods and physics can provide.

Hossa could have scored in the first on a wide-open net after faking out Bishop, but the 36-year-old Slovak horse was tripped at the last second by a sprawling Braydon Coburn, whose six-foot-five frame and his extra length stick were just long enough to make Hossa look like he hit a banana peel before sending the puck an inch or so wide. Teuvo Teravainen could have buried his chance past a tap-dancing Bishop in the first, too. Hockey’s full of near-misses, sure. But either play could have been the difference, right there.

And it underscores that this has been the third series since 1977 to see three one-goal games to start, and the third since 1927 to feature two game-winning, tie-breaking goals scored in the last five minutes of the third period.

In other words, it’s very close, and all the players talking about the emotional roller coaster of the playoffs know what they’re talking about. We’ve seen two great games, one remarkable comeback, and some idiocy, mystery and infamy on the side. Gather round the fire, and let’s see where this thing goes.

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